Iran Missile Strike Hits Beit Shemesh Bomb Shelter, Kills Nine

An Iranian ballistic missile struck the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh on Sunday and directly hit and leveled a public bomb shelter, according to multiple Israeli and international reports.

“Smoke has been seen rising from a five-star hotel complex in Bahrain as several nations work to repel or neutralise hundreds of retaliatory Iranian drone and missile strikes”

9News.au

The reports said the strike killed nine people.

9News.au

Emergency services and police said most or all of the fatalities had been inside the shelter.

Wounded people were taken to hospitals including Shaare Zedek, and authorities reported dozens of injured and missing as search-and-rescue operations continued.

Beit Shemesh lies roughly 20–30 km from Jerusalem, and the impact triggered a widespread emergency response in the area.

Rescue workers described chaotic, dramatic scenes at the impact site with heavy structural damage, smoke, frightened casualties, and people trapped beneath rubble.

Teams with heavy equipment spent hours searching for survivors and recovering the dead.

Agencia EFE

Witnesses and first responders reported parts of apartment buildings had collapsed.

An infant was pulled from a collapsed public shelter, and several children were removed from a damaged shelter.

Authorities sealed off access routes and urged residents to follow civil-defense instructions.

Emergency crews disconnected energy sources in the area to aid rescue operations.

Reporting of wounded and missing numbers varies across outlets, producing conflicting counts of injuries and people unaccounted for.

“DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran vowed revenge Sunday after the killing of its supreme leader and traded strikes with Israel as part of a widening war prompted by a surprise U”

al

Reported injured counts include 27 (BBC), 28 (NST Online), about 40 (The Media Line), 51 (Ynetnews) and generically dozens (Algemeiner).

Missing or unaccounted-for totals were reported as about 20 (Algemeiner, lokmattimes) and 11 (Ynetnews), and these discrepancies reflect ongoing rescue operations and evolving tallies from emergency services.

Israeli and international outlets place the Beit Shemesh strike inside a rapid escalation of strikes across the region.

They report that Iran launched barrages targeting central and southern Israel, Tel Aviv and US bases, and say Iranian authorities framed the attacks as retaliation for a US–Israel wave of strikes the day before.

Algemeiner

Some reports state those earlier strikes killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a claim presented as Iran’s justification for its barrage, while other reports note that the United States and Israel carried out joint strikes on February 28; these accounts contradict each other.

Several outlets described the Beit Shemesh impact as the deadliest single blow so far in the exchange.

Israeli authorities and military sources publicly accused Iran of deliberately firing at civilian neighborhoods.

“JERUSALEM Nine Israelis were killed and 27 others were injured in an Iranian missile strike that directly hit a building in Beit Shemesh in western Jerusalem on Sunday, local media reported”

Anadolu Ajansı

Officials said the specific missile that hit Beit Shemesh had not been intercepted, prompting an internal review of air-defence performance.

Anadolu Ajansı

Iranian state media reported that former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his bodyguards were killed in an apparent strike in Tehran, a claim flagged by some outlets as unconfirmed.

The broader fighting has produced casualties on both sides and elsewhere in the region, with agencies reporting related deaths in Abu Dhabi, Kuwait and heavy losses cited in some Iran-linked strikes.